Georgia Pardons Lynching Victim Leo Frank In 1913 Slaying

March 12, 1986|By United Press International

ATLANTA — The state of Georgia pardoned Leo Frank on Tuesday nearly 71 years after the Jewish factory superintendent was snatched from prison and lynched in a town square for the murder of a 13-year-old girl.

Without addressing the question of guilt or innocence, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to pardon Frank ''to try to heal old wounds,'' board chairman Wayne Snow said.

''I don't think it's going to please everybody,'' Snow said. ''Overall, we have done the best we can do with it.''

The board said Frank was pardoned because the state failed to protect him and ''thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction'' and because officials failed to bring his killers to justice.

Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Factory, was convicted Aug. 25, 1913, of the Memorial Day murder of Mary Phagan, one of his employees. He was sentenced to death.

''The funeral of Mary Phagan, the police investigation and the trial of Leo Frank were reported in the overblown newspaper style of the day,'' the board said. ''Emotions were fanned high.''